Appointment board

ABSTRACT

An appointment board for use as a register of appointments or the like comprising a U-shaped frame for carrying a plurality of bars. Detachably secured to the bars are schedule sheets on which appointments or other data can be recorded.

United States Patent [1 1 Notaro APPOINTMENT BOARD [76] Inventor: Peter J. Notaro, 490 McDermott Rd., Rockville Centre, NY. 11570 [22] Filed: May 26, 1971 21' Appl. No.: 146,897

[52] US. Cl 40/63, 40/125 A [51] Int. Cl. 609i 11/30 [58] Field of Search 40/63, 125 A, 64

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,168,787 2/1965 Surrey 40/63 X 3,546,799 12/1970 McCoy 40/63 n11 3,750,313 1 Aug. 7, I973 2,588,635 3/1952 Junkin 40/64 X 3,335,509 8/1967 Braxton 40/64 X 1,589,556 6/1926 Rand 40/63 483,313 9/1892 Rudolph 40/63 Primary Examiner-Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner-L. R. Oremland Attorney-Kenneth S. Goldfarb [57] ABSTRACT An appointment board for use as a register of appointments or the like cb mprising a U-shaped frame for carrying a plurality of bars. Detachably secured to the bars are schedule sheets on which appointments or other data can be recorded.

2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures 1 APPOINTMENT some This invention relates to a schedule or appointment board for appointments or the like for providing at a glance a visual indication of the schedule of appointments for one or more individuals.

Various professional and business offices, such as doctors, dentists, attorneys, salesmen, etc., have re quired a scheduling of times for patients or clients so that the respective individual can register at a glance the appointments which he has for a considerable pe riod of time yet which allow a nurse or secretary to enter new appointments thereon in a convenient man ner.

In the past, various types of appointment books or boards have been devised. However, these appointment books utilize numerous pages which overlie one another so as to prevent a person looking at the book from visualizing at a single glance the status of appointments for the next considerable period of time, such as a month, four weeks, or the like. The prior appointment boards which have been arranged for providing a visual indication of an entire months schedule are rendered somewhat ineffective after, for example, two weeks of a particular month have elapsed.

The present invention provides means for overcoming the disadvantages of these prior scheduleappointment boards or books by using separate bars mounted in a frame so that, for example, three, four, five, or more weeks can be indicated on a single board, and when the schedule for one week or other period has expired, it may be readily removed and the next week's schedule easily inserted.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a schedule board that may be molded out of synthetic plastic material or manufactured out of highly attractive substances, such as decorative seasoned woods or hardwoods, which is easily manipulated and utilized and which is efficient in operation.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of a schedule board which employs means for overcoming the effects of wear on the parts thereof.

Still further objects and features of this invention reside in the provision of a schedule board that can be used in professional offices or in various businesses and companies, which may be made in various colors and in various decors, yet which is inexpensive to manufacture, thereby permitting wide use and distribution.

These, together with the various ancillary objects and features of the present invention, which will become apparent as the following description proceeds, are attained by this schedule board, a preferred embodiment of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, by way of example only, wherein:

FIG. I is a perspective view ofa schedule board constructed in accordance with the concepts of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial plan view ofa part of the schedule board;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken along the plane of line 3-3 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional detail view taken along the plane, of line 44 in FIG. 1; and,

FIG. 5 is a vertical detail view, similar to that of FIG. 4, but showing a modified view of the invention.

With continuing reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein like reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the various views, reference numeral 10 is used to generally designate an appointment board in accordance with the concepts of the present invention.

The appointment board includes a substantially U- shaped member 12, including a base 14 and side members l6 and 18. The side members 16 and 18 extend parallel to each other. The U-shaped member 12 may be molded as an integral part out of any suitable synthetic plastic material and in any color as desired. Alternatively, it is within the concepts of this invention to manufacture the U-shaped member 12 out of any other attractive material such as ahighly polished hardwood or the like, whereby the decor of the schedule board 10 will compliment the decor of the room, desk, or other object with which it is placed. The schedule board may be made in any suitable size depending upon the extent of indicia that is to be placed thereon and includes a plurality of discrete bars of which four have been shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1 and are indicated by reference numerals 20, 22, 24 and 26. Each of these bars are all substantially the same length as the space between the side embers 16 and 18 and the aggregate total width of the sum of widths of the bars 20, 22, 24 and 26 is equal to the width of the side members 16 and 18.

Affixed on the bars 20, 22, 24 and 26 are schedule sheets 28 all of which are identical. As shown in FIG. 2, the bars are substantially identical and have schedule sheets 28 have indicia thereon dividing the sheets into spaces for each workday as for example Monday through Friday, if there are five work days, or for that matter, Monday through Saturday, if the schedule is to include Saturday. These division form substantially rectangular spaces 30 each of which are then divided into columns 32, 34, and 36. These columns are shown as being three in number, but any suitable number of columns may be provided depending upon the number of personnel the schedule board is designed to accommodate. In turn, the columns 32, 34, 36 are each divided into spaces as, for example, space 38 indicative of expenditures of time with the hour column 40 being disposed to one side of the column 32. Thus, the nurse or secretary can write in the patientss or client's name or, in the case of salesmen, the person with whom the conference has been arranged on the schedule board. The bar 26 would represent the current week and the bar 24 the next week, while the bars 22 and 20 would represent the third and fourth week. when the week's appointments, as represented on sheet 28, affixed to bar 26, have expired, the bar 20 may be removed and the bars 20, 22, 24, positioned therein to a lower position, a new sheet 28 applied on the bar 26, and the bar 26 then inserted in the position such as bar 20 in FIG. I. The sheet 28 may be made of the paper or any suitable substance on which information may be easily written. The indicia which is printed on one face thereof and the other face is provided with a self-stick gum or other adhesive, such as indicated at 50. Of course, after a number of sheets have been applied, one above the other, they may be all or in part removed from the bar.

In the embodiment as shown in FIG. 5, the sheets 280 may be made slightly longer than the bar on which they are positioned. This is to afford means for overcoming the wear on the bars and on the side members 16 and 18 during the continued use of the appointment board since the increased size of the sheets 28a will insure that the bars will not move too freely or be easily jarred out of the frame.

A latitude of modification, substitution and change is intended in the foregoing disclosure, and in some instances, some features of the present invention may be employed without a corresponding use of other features.

1 claim:

1. An appointment board comprising a U-shaped frame including a base and a pair of parallel side members on opposite sides of said base, a plurality of bars each having a length substantially the same as the dis tance between said side members, said bars being seated between said side members, and schedule sheets removably secured to said bars, and sheets having one face provided with indicia thereon, the other face being provided with self-stick adhesive for attaching said sheets to said bars, said sheets being slightly longer than said bars so' as to contact said side members when said bars are inserted between said side members to more firmly seat said bars between said side members.

2. A board according to claim 1, wherein said U- shaped member is formed of plastic, said base integral with said side members, the aggregate sum of the width of said bars being equal to that of said side members, the depth of said bars and said sheets being substantially equal to that of said side members.

a: it e 1 

1. An appointment board comprising a U-shaped frame including a base and a paiR of parallel side members on opposite sides of said base, a plurality of bars each having a length substantially the same as the distance between said side members, said bars being seated between said side members, and schedule sheets removably secured to said bars, and sheets having one face provided with indicia thereon, the other face being provided with self-stick adhesive for attaching said sheets to said bars, said sheets being slightly longer than said bars so as to contact said side members when said bars are inserted between said side members to more firmly seat said bars between said side members.
 2. A board according to claim 1, wherein said U-shaped member is formed of plastic, said base integral with said side members, the aggregate sum of the width of said bars being equal to that of said side members, the depth of said bars and said sheets being substantially equal to that of said side members. 